Regarding Susan Sontag

Director Nancy Kates in attendance

Susan Sontag is one of the few Americans who could legitimately be described as a “glamorous intellectual.” Strikingly attractive and imposingly charismatic, Sontag was a prolific essayist, novelist, filmmaker and activist. From her seminal essay on the queer aesthetics of “Camp” to critiques of the Vietnam War, from art theory to the AIDS epidemic, Sontag engaged with the culture and politics of the 20th century as one of its boldest writers and thinkers.

Sontag could be frustratingly elusive on the subject of her sexual and romantic life, but she certainly had a very adventurous one. Though married to a man for a period, she was mostly involved with a variety of strong women, including her long-term relationship with photographer Annie Leibovitz. Regarding Susan Sontag traces the lines between her unwavering professional passions and the powerful, uninhibited intimate relationships that informed her life both as an artist and as an intellectual.

“My desire to write is connected to my homosexuality,” she confided in a 1959 journal entry. “I need the identity as a weapon to match the weapon that society has against me.” Regarding Susan Sontag opens a remarkable window into the private world of this dynamic public figure.